Field settings

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Each field contains settings to determine where and how data is loaded and saved. All fields share some common settings, but also offer unique settings per field type. These unique settings can be found by reading more about the field type.

Field settings can be customized when editing a field group in Meta Box Builder or the fields array if you use code to create a field group. In Meta Box Builder, settings are put into 2 tabs: General and Advanced.

Below are the screenshots of text field settings:

Common settings

Each field setting in the Meta Box Builder has a proper label and tooltip (if necessary) to explain what it is. Below is the table of common settings for all fields with the corresponding setting ID in case you use code.

General

These are common field settings in the General tab in Meta Box Builder.

Name	ID	Description
Label	name	Field label. Optional. If empty, the field input is 100% width.
ID	id	Field ID. Required and must be unique. It will be used as meta_key when saving to the database. It’s a good practice to use only numbers, letters, and underscores.
Type	type	Field type. Required. In Meta Box Builder, you can switch field type if needed. The list of field types is already available in the Meta Box Builder and is showed below for reference.
Label description	label_description	Label description, displayed below the field label. Optional.
Input description	desc	Field description, displayed below the field input. Optional.
Default value	std	Default value. Optional.
Placeholder	placeholder	Placeholder text for the input or select box. Optional.
Required	required	Whether the field is required (true or false). Optional. Default false.
Disabled	disabled	Whether the field is disabled (true or false). Optional. Default false.
Read only	readonly	Whether the field is read only (true or false). Optional. Default false.
Multiple	multiple	Does the field have multiple values (like the select field)? Optional. Default false.
Cloneable	clone	Is the field clonable (repeatable)? true or false. Optional. Default false.
Sortable	sort_clone	Ability to drag-and-drop reorder clones (true or false). Optional. Default false.
Clone default value	clone_default	Clone the default value of fields? true or false (default).
Clone as multiple	clone_as_multiple	Whether to store clone values in multiple rows in the database? Optional. Default false. See this post for details.
Max number of clones	max_clone	Maximum number of clones. Optional. Default 0 (unlimited).
Add more text	add_button	The text for Add more clone button. Optional. Default “+ Add more”.

Advanced

These are common field settings in the Advanced tab in Meta Box Builder.

Name	ID	Description
Before	before	Custom HTML outputted before field’s HTML.
After	after	Custom HTML outputted after field’s HTML.
Custom CSS class	class	Custom CSS class, in case you want to customize the field. Optional.
Custom sanitize callback	sanitize_callback	Custom PHP callback for sanitizing field value before saving into the database. Set it to none to bypass the sanitization. See more details.
Save field value	save_field	Whether to save field value. Optional. Default true. This option doesn’t work in the block editor (Gutenberg).
Custom HTML5 attributes	attributes	Custom attributes for inputs. See more details.
Validation	validation	Validation rules for fields. Optional. See more details.
Custom settings	N/A	Custom field settings, useful when you want to add your settings to fields.

Field types

Below is the list of all supported field types with a brief description:

Field Type	Description
autocomplete	Text input that uses jQuery autocomplete library to perform the autocomplete action.
background	Set background properties. Added in version 4.13.0.
button	Display simple button. Usually used for JavaScript triggers.
button_group	Select one or multiple choices by enabling button(s) from a group. Added in version 4.13.0.
checkbox	Checkbox.
checkbox_list	List of checkboxes.
color	Color picker.
custom_html	Output custom HTML content.
date	Date picker.
datetime	Date and time picker.
divider	Simple horizontal line.
fieldset_text	Group of text inputs.
file	Simple file upload with default UI like <input type="file" />.
file_advanced	File upload with WordPress media popup.
file_input	Enter file URL or select a file from media library.
file_upload	File upload with drag and drop area.
heading	Heading text.
hidden	Input field with hidden type.
image	Similar to file but for images only.
image_advanced	Similar to file_advanced, but for images only.
image_select	Similar to radio select, but use images instead of “radio”.
image_upload or plupload_image	Similar to file_upload but for images only.
key_value	Add an unlimited group of key-value pairs.
map	Google maps.
number	Input for numbers which uses HTML5 input type="number".
oembed	Input for media from Youtube, Vimeo and all supported sites by WordPress.
password	Password input.
post	Select dropdown for posts.
radio	Radio input.
range	HTML 5 range input.
select	Select dropdown.
select_advanced	Beautiful select dropdown using select2 library.
single_image	Select or upload a single image via WordPress media popup. Added in version 4.13.0.
slider	jQuery UI slider.
switch	On/off switch with iOS style. Added in version 4.13.0.
taxonomy	Select dropdown for taxonomy terms. Doesn’t save term IDs in post meta, but set post terms.
taxonomy_advanced	Same as taxonomy but saves term IDs in post meta as a comma separated string. It doesn’t set post terms.
text	Text field.
text_list	Group of text inputs. Similar to fieldset_text.
textarea	Textarea field.
time	Time picker.
user	Select dropdown for users.
video	Upload or select a video from the Media Library using the WordPress media popup.
wysiwyg	WordPress editor.

In addition to the above field types, you can also use HTML5 input types. See this guide for details.

Default value

The mechanism of std in Meta Box works only if the field group has not been saved before. It means all fields in that field group, not just the specific field that you set the std for. So if there’s any field that already has value, then std won’t work for other fields, even new fields you’ve just added.

Examples:

When you create a new post, then no fields have values (of course), then std works for all fields.

When you edit an existing post that has a field group, then some fields might have values. Therefore, std doesn’t work for all fields. In this case, if you edit the field group and add a new field, std still doesn’t work for that new field (even it has no value before), because the field group has been saved before.

Field-specific settings

Besides all common settings, each field type can have its own settings. Please see more details for each field type on the left menu (section “Fields”).

To save time read and write settings for fields, we’ve already prepared some code examples that you can get from Meta Box Code Snippet Library.

Customize field settings

Outside of the “Edit field group” UI, it is possible to modify a field’s settings via the rwmb_normalize_field filter. This filter exposes the $field settings array for each field and allows customization to all settings.

This example shows how to modify a specific field (called customer_name) via this filter to customize settings unavailable to the UI.

add_filter( 'rwmb_normalize_customer_name_field', function( $field ) {
	$field['required'] = true;
	$field['size'] = 20;
	$field['placeholder'] = 'Mark Cuban';

	return $field;
} );

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